I am a leadership and communications consultant and coach, as well as a professional speaker. I'm CEO of the Authentic Leadership Alliance and also Executive-in-Residence at the Center for Creative Leadership, one the world's largest independent leadership development firms. As a certified professional speaker, I speak to groups around the country about leadership, communications and managing change. I spent 23 years in Corporate America in various senior executive roles, and before that, was a broadcast reporter in Boston. Having successfully reinvented my career multiple times and busted through the proverbial glass ceiling in sports, academia and business, I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly, and have refreshing and practical perspectives to share. I have a passion for authenticity, clarity and courage – which I believe are essential, whether someone is leading their lives or leading others. I graduated Phi Beta Kappa and top of my class at Boston College, and have completed graduate work at Harvard University and the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Entire Management Team Killed: A CEO's Turnaround Story

Ingar Skaug, former CEO of Wilhelmsen, led the company from grief to growth after the top two levels of management were killed in a plane crash.

Ingar Skaug took a deep breath as he stepped into his first CEO job. He’d be picking up new responsibilities. He’d be picking up experience in a new industry. And, he’d be picking up the pieces after the entire management team had been killed in a plane crash.

It was like a scene from a Hollywood screenplay. Wilh. Wilhelmsen, an international shipping company in Scandinavia, had just added a ninth large carrier to its fleet. It was time to celebrate. So on a cool September morning in 1989, its management team boarded a plane in Oslo and headed to Hamburg for the customary christening ceremony.

Suddenly, celebration turned to tragedy as the plane crashed, killing all 50 passengers and wiping out the top two levels of Wilhelmsen management.

At the time, Skaug was Chief Operating Officer of Scandinavian Air (SAS) and loved his job. Under his watch, SAS had achieved double-digit growth and had transformed its culture to where it was listed as the #1 place to work in Norway. Skaug thought he’d be at SAS for the rest of his career.

“It took me three months to decide whether to take the Wilhelmsen job,” admits Skaug. “But in the end, I realized that this would be a leadership challenge of a lifetime.”

And indeed it was. When Skaug took the reins from a caretaker who had been loosely watching over Wilhelmsen since the accident, he found a company in disarray. Skaug recalls: “When I realized how bad things were, my first thought was, what the hell have I done?”

Wilhelmsen’s financial performance was floundering. The offices and plants were disheveled and disorganized. And employees were trapped in mourning, unable to focus and make decisions.

“It was an organization paralyzed by grief,” says Skaug. “I’d be in a meeting discussing a business issue, and someone would start talking about the accident. I could feel the energy drain from the room as the conversation went in a completely different direction. It was hard for anyone to stay focused. I had to work at keeping my mouth shut and my ears open.”

Patiently Planning for Change

That first year, Skaug did a lot of listening. “I walked around and asked a lot of questions. And I’d look into my employees’ eyes. It told me a lot. I found that the younger people who hadn’t been there very long were desperate to move forward, while the people who had been there for a long time were stuck in the grieving process.”

Eager to get Wilhelmsen on a path to success, Skaug wrestled with how much pressure to apply, and when. He decided to spend the first nine months evaluating talent, meeting with customers, assessing the culture, strategy, business processes…all very quietly. Meanwhile, he began to talk publicly about the importance of a performance-based culture, sowing seeds for changes to come.

“I felt it was important to let the organization go through a full cycle of mourning while I earned their trust and helped them understand that change was coming,” recalls Skaug. “I let them go through all the holidays, all the annual milestones. On the one-year anniversary of the accident, we had a ceremony and invited the relatives of the deceased. As far as I was concerned, that was the moment of closure for the organization. It was now time to move forward.”

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Susan, thank you for this. Great inspirational story of transforming the business and more importantly – the culture. I was particularly interested in the balance of being human and running a successful business – how those two ideals can co-exist. Thank you again.

Todd, thanks for your comment. Indeed, that was one of the most striking takeaways that I had as well…that Ingar Skaug was able to balance those two often opposing concepts. It’s a good example for others to follow.

This could only happen in Norway, IMHO. In the late 70s Prof Kristen Nygaard explained how he introduced computer automation to the unionized labor and how his successes were emulated elsewhere with not so spectacular results. He then continued to explain why FORTRAN programmers could not comprehend object-oriented concepts effortlessly.

So many good companies get lost in the trees and cannot understand the forest but it is seldom for not trying. There are many globalized companies that are lost in the maze looking for the easy way out to contain costs while oblivious to sources for revenue increase.

Great story, Susan. Let us hope that Ingar Skaud can inspire others on the most fundamental of approaches to leveraging resources.

A sharp and inspirational leader. Culture and Context is key. Setting context at the top then implementing it through any and all hardships is paramount. Change is good, transformation is required! Great article!

Thanks, Tom. It’s amazing how often culture and context are overlooked or taken for granted among leaders. In this rapidly changing environment where continual transformation is the norm, these two elements are fundamental.

CEO positions are challenging enough, and we all know the importance of developing a strong and enduring culture. In this case, the culture was literally interrupted and had to be tenderly pieced back together. This is a great piece, and one reflecting a business challenge that may not be recent but is certainly still relevant.